Slain Italian student was tortured, Egypt says

1of 5This image posted online after the Jan. 25, 2016 disappearance of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni in Cairo, Egypt shows Reggeni in a graphic used in an online campaign, #whereisgiulio seeking information on his whereabouts. The body of the missing Italian student was found with signs of torture, including multiple stab wounds and cigarette burns, by the side of a highway on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, an investigating prosecutor told The Associated Press on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2015. (#wheresgiulio via AP)Photo: HONS

2of 5People enter Cairo, Egypt's central morgue where the body of Giulio Regeni, A 28-year-old graduate student, is held, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The body of the a missing Italian student was found with signs of torture, including multiple stab wounds and cigarette burns, by the side of a highway on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, an investigating prosecutor told The Associated Press on Thursday.(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)Photo: Nariman El-Mofty, STF

3of 5Egyptian security forces stand guard outside Zeinhom morgue, where the body of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old graduate student, is held, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The body of the missing Italian student was found with signs of torture, including multiple stab wounds and cigarette burns, by the side of a highway on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, an investigating prosecutor told The Associated Press on Thursday. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)Photo: Nariman El-Mofty, STF

4of 5Journalists try to photograph and film the vehicle belonging to the Italian ambassador after his visit to Zeinhom morgue, where the body of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old graduate student, is held, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The body of the missing Italian student was found with signs of torture, including multiple stab wounds and cigarette burns, by the side of a highway on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, an investigating prosecutor told The Associated Press on Thursday. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)Photo: Nariman El-Mofty, STF

5of 5A vehicle belonging to the Italian ambassador is parked outside Zeinhom morgue, where the body of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old graduate student, is held, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. The body of the missing Italian student was found with signs of torture, including multiple stab wounds and cigarette burns, by the side of a highway on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, an investigating prosecutor told The Associated Press on Thursday.(AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)Photo: Nariman El-Mofty, STF

CAIRO - The body of an Italian graduate student who disappeared last month has been found with multiple stab wounds, cigarette burns and other signs of torture and a "slow death" on a roadside on the outskirts of Cairo, an Egyptian prosecutor said Thursday.

Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University Ph.D. candidate who had been researching labor rights in Egypt, went missing on Jan. 25, the fifth anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. His body was found Wednesday.

News of the slaying and evidence of torture spurred diplomatic tensions. An Italian government delegation cut short a visit to Cairo, and Italy summoned the Egyptian ambassador in Rome, calling for a full investigation with participation by Italian experts.

Regeni's disappearance came at a time when Egyptian officials and media have often depicted foreigners as plotting against Egypt - and particularly as seeking to foment unrest surrounding the Jan. 25 anniversary. In the days leading up to the anniversary, police were on high alert, conducting sweeps aimed at preventing any possible protest.

Egypt is also battling an insurgency by militants who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group. They are mainly active in the Sinai Peninsula but have also carried out attacks elsewhere, including kidnapping and beheading a Croatian oil worker last year and setting off a bomb outside the Italian consulate in Cairo.

Egyptian media accused "evil hands" of orchestrating Regeni's killing to damage Egyptian-Italian relations. The term is usually used to refer to Islamists, who have been targeted by a ferocious crackdown since the 2013 military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The Italian media pointed fingers at the Egyptian security forces.

A business daily, Il Sole 24 Ore, said "the strong suspicion" was that Regeni was "killed by Egypt … by the system, by the security apparatus."

Regeni had been in Egypt since September conducting research on workers and labor rights - a sensitive topic, since disgruntled workers were among the forces in the anti-Mubarak uprising.

The left-wing Italian newspaper il Manifesto said Regeni had been writing for it, signing his articles under a pseudonym.

"I imagine it was for security because the articles were about workers and unions," said foreign desk editor Simone Pieranni. "It's clear that when you speak about social rights and workers' rights in Egypt you are implicitly denouncing the lack of freedom."

Regeni was last seen on Jan. 25 heading from his apartment to meet a friend in downtown Cairo. He entered the subway.

His body was found Wednesday in an empty lot along a highway in the 6th of October suburb on Cairo's western outskirts. He was identified by his Egyptian roommate, said prosecutor Ahmed Nagi, who heads the investigation team in the case.

"All of his body, including his face" had bruises, cuts from stabbings and burns from cigarettes, Nagi said, adding Regeni appeared to have suffered a "slow death."

Later Thursday, Nagi said an autopsy showed the cause of death was a brain hemorrhage. Asked about possible police involvement, he said: "We don't rule out any possibility."